Micky Dymond wrangles bikes and more in Nuclear Cowboyz Orlando show

A member of the "Nuclear Cowboyz" takes flight in… (Nuclear Cowboyz/Chris…)

March 7, 2014|By Tod Caviness, Orlando Sentinel

High-jumping, laser-dodging motorbikes share a post-apocalyptic landscape with martial-arts warriors. A comic book written by a teenager on a sugar high? Nope, just another day at the office for Micky Dymond.

Dymond will be in town this weekend when the Nuclear Cowboyz motorcycle stunt show roars into Orlando's Amway Center at 7:30 p.m. Friday and 2 p.m. Saturday, March 8-9.

As the show's stunt coordinator, he is responsible for wrangling professional motocross and quad (four-wheeler) riders through a futuristic gauntlet of pyrotechnics and tricks.

Dymond's background in motocross racing goes back to the 1980s, when he won back-to-back AMA Motocross Championships. Since then, he has been active behind the scenes organizing freestyle events for the Vans Warped Tour, but his fingers never stray far from the throttle: Dymond plans to compete in the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb in June.

The Nuclear Cowboyz show features 14 riders including X Games regulars Mike Mason and Taka Higashino, along with 2007 Geneva Freestyle Champion Jimmy Fitzpatrick.

"It's an intensely choreographed show," said Dymond, who is in his fifth year with the Cowboyz. "The guys that know it have valuable experience that is hard to replace, so they create their own job security by being solid and staying as safe as possible."

Not to say that the show itself is old hat. New this year is a team of Shaolin monks from China. While the Nuclear Cowboyz flip and roar overhead, the monks will showcase their martial-arts disciplines, doing battle and lifting each other on spears.

"There's moments that are fun, and there's moments where you realize they're really deadly machines," said Dymond, adding that much of the martial-arts choreography is handled by show director Scotty Nguyen. "But they're incredibly kind and generous people, and I love the fact that we've incorporated some international flavor."

How does all this fit together? There is a story line, which Dymond admits is "not Shakespeare": A super-powered temptress named Shockra plays villain to the Cowboyz' heroics.

"In the post-nuclear world, she's like Caesar," Dymond explained. "She has this Roman coliseum for her entertainment and she finds the Nuclear Cowboyz and wants to put them in her arena games, so she goes out and wages war against them to capture them."

All this flash bears little similarity to the dirt-riding world of racing where Dymond cut his teeth, but like any competitor, he's glad to see new audiences cheering.

"In the beginning, freestyle was more of the NASCAR, beer-drinking, hard guy crowd," he said. "We've become a lot more familiar to the younger audience, which is a lot more suitable for a circus like this."

Tickets — $20 for adults and $10 for children — are available from Ticketmaster, 800-745-3000.